Capt. John Donnell Smith used these field glasses during the war. They were damaged in May 1864 on the south bank of the North Anna River, "while in hand" one of its barrels was smashed by a shot from the enemy's skirmish line.

Additional information re: the damage is provided in the postwar memoirs of Daniel W. Jarrett of the Bedford Light Artillery. Capt. Smith was standing at his gun looking through the field glasses when someone approached to speak with him. He put down the glasses, which Jarrett picked up and looked through. He saw two sharpshooters emerge and take aim. "in an instant a ball hit the glasses right at the curve of the left hand tube and went downward to it and hit the regulating screw and knocked it out and broke it in the right hand tube and stopped in half of the length of the bullet of my eye and knocked me down."